Book Review: Money For Nothing

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Money For Nothing     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Donald E. Westlake
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Thriller   Espionage
Mysterious, Apr 2003, $24.95, 294 pp.

Advertising executive Josh Redmont waits for the ferry to take him to Fire Island where he will join his wife and child on vacation. However, a stranger informs John that "You are now active." For seven years, John has been the recipient of a monthly one grand check from the United States Agency that he thought was an error, but eventually from his country. Now this USA wants to collect. He is expected to help foreign nationals assassinate the premier of a foreign nation visiting Yankee Stadium.

Josh's New York apartment will serve as a safe house. Unbeknownst to the former sleeper agent who didn't realize he was sleeping is that once the deed is done he becomes expendable too. Josh meets another recently activated former ingenuous sleeper, off-Broadway actor Mitch Robbie. They partner in an attempt to survive this fiasco.

Take the seemingly impossible, blend inside the inconceivable, and mix that with the immovable and what do you get another delightful wild ride by Donald E. Westlake. He takes an illogical scenario that when read in a short review or a cover inset appears crazy, but turns it into a stark thriller that hooks the audience into believing the unbelievable. MONEY FOR NOTHING takes he premise and runs with it so that the audience receives a taut thriller starring a delightful lead character supported by a strong cast. Readers who buy this book will know they spent money for something worth reading.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner